This Fourth of July, Keep Cool with Coolidge

America's birthday is also that of Calvin Coolidge, the only
President to be born on the Fourth of July. This is altogether
fitting, as the man remembered as "Silent Cal" is one of the most
eloquent voices for the great and enduring principles expressed in
our Declaration of Independence.

There are many half-truths about Coolidge. His official White
House biography characterizes him as almost blindly preserving the
past in the face of changed circumstances, "determined to preserve
old moral and economic precepts amid the material prosperity
Americans were enjoying. He refused to use the Federal economic
power to check the growing boom or ameliorate the depressed
condition of agriculture and certain industries," and he "pledged
to maintain the status quo."[1]

To be sure, economic prosperity flourished under Coolidge, but
it was a consequence of tax cuts and smart financial policy rather
than mere inattentiveness.[2] Despite his nickname, Coolidge was far from
silent in his biweekly press conferences and (years before FDR's
fireside chats) regular radio addresses to the American people.[3]

Many also remember Coolidge for saying that "the business of
America is business." This is also misunderstood. When he said
"after all, the chief business of the American people is business,"
Coolidge did not mean that Americans consider wealth to be the
highest accomplishment. Rather, he argued that "the accumulation of
wealth can not be justified as the chief end of existence.... And
there never was a time when wealth was so generally regarded as a
means, or so little regarded as an end, as today."[4]

An experienced public servant, Coolidge served as a city
councilman, city solicitor, mayor of Northampton, state senator,
lieutenant governor, and governor of Massachusetts before joining
presidential candidate Warren G. Harding's quest to return the
country to "normalcy." Calvin Coolidge took the presidential oath
in the early morning on August 3, 1923, following Harding's death.
Under Coolidge, normalcy would not simply mean the absence of a
world war; it would mean a return to the principles of America's
Founding.

How did Coolidge understand the Founders and the principles they
articulated? Were America's principles good because they were old?
Would these principles serve as placeholders until newer, better
principles could be discovered?

Coolidge saw the Founders and their principles as simultaneously
conservative and revolutionary. They were conservative insofar as
many of their ideas were expressed earlier in Western political
philosophy and the religious writings of the American colonists.[5] They were
revolutionary insofar as they established a nation based on
principles of individual rights, liberty, equality, and
self-government.

Coolidge understood that the Founders did not invent the
principles contained within the Declaration of Independence: "Great
ideas do not burst upon the world unannounced. They are reached by
a gradual development over a length of time usually proportionate
to their importance. This is especially true of the principles laid
down in the Declaration of Independence."[6] The Declaration of
Independence did not emerge simply from a revolution of "the
oppressed and downtrodden. It brought no scum to the surface, for
the reason that colonial society had developed no scum."[7] Far from being
a document to benefit solely the landed elite or the oppressed, the
Declaration of Independence was a document for a self-governing
people.

Coolidge argued that the principles of equality, liberty, and
consent were related. If there were no natural rulers, then all men
were free to govern themselves. Since no rights can "be bartered
away nor taken from them by any earthly power, it follows as a
matter of course that the practical authority of the Government has
to rest on the consent of the governed."[8] Coolidge adhered to these
principles consistently: It was Coolidge, for instance, who ended
the practice of segregation in federal employment, a practice
instituted by Progressive icon Woodrow Wilson.[9]

Coolidge saw the Declaration of Independence as "the product of
the spiritual insight of the people." Americans were idealistic.
While Americans were "profoundly concerned with producing, buying,
selling, investing and prospering in the world," their highest aim
was not material success. Americans, he said, "make no concealment
of the fact that we want wealth, but there are many other things
that we want very much more. We want peace and honor, and that
charity which is so strong an element of all civilization."[10]

In order to prioritize the spiritual things over material goods,
Coolidge encouraged Americans to "cultivate the reverence which
they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual
and moral leadership which [our Founders] showed. We must keep
replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the
altar fires before which they worshipped."[11] Americans could not take
the principles of the Declaration for granted and still maintain
material success.

Calvin Coolidge did not believe that the principles of the
Declaration would evolve with each new generation. His views
differed from those of the Progressives who dominated politics
before and after the 1920s and who "asserted that the world has
made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new
thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance
over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well
discard [the Founders'] conclusions for something more modern."[12]

Coolidge understood that there is a finality to the Declaration
of Independence. "If all men are created equal, that is final. If
they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If
governments derive their just powers from the consent of the
governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond
these propositions."[13] There could be no progress by moving away
from the Declaration.

As we prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July, let us not only
remember the principles of America, but also commemorate the
birthday of the man who so eloquently articulated and defended
America's enduring principles and noble heritage of freedom.

Julia Shaw is Program Coordinator in
the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage
Foundation.

Words from Calvin
Coolidge

To live under the American Constitution is the greatest
political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.

--At the White House, December 12,
1924

Some principles are so constant and so obvious that we do not
need to change them, but we need rather to observe them.

--At Convention of the National
Education Association, Washington, D.C., July 4, 1924

Human nature is a very constant quality. While there is
justification for hoping and believing that we are moving toward
perfection, it would be idle and absurd to assume that we have
already reached it.

--At Arlington National Cemetery, May
30,1924

The rights which are so clearly asserted in the Declaration of
Independence are the rights of the individual. The wrongs of which
that instrument complains, and which it asserts it is the purpose
of its signers to redress, are the wrongs of the individual.

--At Convention of the National
Education Association, Washington, DC, July 4, 1924

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly
restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal
of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new
experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of
that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their
conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not
be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal,
that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is
final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of
the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made
beyond these propositions.

--"The Inspiration of the Declaration
of Independence," July 5, 1926

We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of
material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our
Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first.
Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming
though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp.
If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed
to us, we must be like minded as the fathers who created it. We
must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the
reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must
follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We
must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling
flame, the altar fires before which they worshipped.

[9] See Alvin S.
Felzenberg, "Calvin Coolidge and Race: His Record in Dealing with
the Racial Tensions of the 1920s," presented at conference on
"Calvin Coolidge: Examining the Evidence," John F. Kennedy
Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, Massachusetts, July 30-31,
1998, at http://www.calvin-coolidge.org/html/calvin_coolidge_and_race.html
(June 30, 2009).

Share

America's birthday is also that of Calvin Coolidge, the onlyPresident to be born on the Fourth of July. This is altogetherfitting, as the man remembered as "Silent Cal" is one of the mosteloquent voices for the great and enduring principles expressed inour Declaration of Independence.

Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) says it's "a great way to start the day for any conservative who wants to get America back on track."

Sign up to start your free subscription today!

Sorry! Your form had errors:

About The Heritage Foundation

The Heritage Foundation is the nation’s most broadly supported public policy research institute, with hundreds of thousands of individual, foundation and corporate donors. Heritage, founded in February 1973, has a staff of 275 and an annual expense budget of $82.4 million.

Our mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. Read More